Winches are commonly used to hoist a load onto a platform, for example, a boat onto a trailer. If the winch is used to hoist heavy loads, the winch is comonly constructed such that the handle is connected through a pinion gear to a drum gear that is affixed to the drum. The pinion gear provides greater handle revolutions per drum revolutions and increases the torque capacity an operator can handle. Often marine winches have this gear mechanism.
However, no provisions have previously been made to disengage the pinion gear from the drum gear. In other words, the gears are permanently meshed. As a consequence, when an operator pays out line (unwinds the line from the drum by pulling the line), the drum turns and drives the pinion gear which in turn spins the handle. If the line is quickly payed out, the handle spins both rapidly and forcibly. What is needed is a winch that has a neutral position whereby the drum can be disconnected from the handle so that the drum can spin without causing the handle to spin during paying out of the line.